Let me introduce myself: My name is Danielle Dick, and I am a Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers University, where I also direct the Rutgers Addiction Research Center, which we affectionately call the “RARC”. The RARC is the largest addiction research center in the world, with over 100 researchers who study everything from neuroscience and genetics to prevention, treatment, and recovery. My own work focuses on genetic and environmental influences on substance use disorder. I lead large international gene identification projects, where we are identifying the specific genes involved in why some people are more at risk of developing problems with substances than others. I also lead longitudinal studies of tens of thousands of children studied across development to understand what children carrying at-risk genetic dispositions look like as they are growing up. This allows us to identify early behavioral risk factors and design prevention and early intervention studies. I am passionate about how we can translate research discoveries into improvements in health, and how we can communicate the latest research advances to the public so that everyone can benefit.
A bit about my background: I did my undergraduate degree in psychology and biology at the University of Virginia, and then I did my PhD in the clinical psychology program at Indiana University, before doing postdoctoral training in genetics. I have led and contributed to more than 25 grants from the National Institutes of Health, with grant funding totaling >55 million dollars. I have >450 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of child development, addiction, mental health, genetics, and human behavior, and, along the way, I have won national and international awards for my work. My book The Child Code, was published by Penguin Random House, and helps parents tailor their parenting to what will work best for each of their uniquely wired kiddos.